Eyes of Texas on Zimmer

By ron RosenOctober 23, 1980

Don Zimmer evidently will either be manager of the Texas Rangers or third base coach of the New York Yankees by this weekend.

So says the 1963-65 journeyman Washington Senator infielder whose phone hasn't stopped ringing, he says, since the Boston Red Sox dropped him as manager Oct. 1. Zim figures he is one of two or three finalists for the Texas job, possible along with Yankee ex-skipper Bob Lemon. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, wanting no more of Mike Ferraro at the hot-corner coaching box in view of the club's base-running misadventures in the playoffs loss to K.C., is holding the job open for Zimmer, who says he'll take it if it doesn't pan out with the Rangers.

More baseball '81: The ubiquitous Steinbrenner -- Yanks talking with Dave Winfield and the Padres. With its star planning to affirm his freedom before the Nov. 13 reentry draft, San Diego hopes Winfield can work out a contract with the Yanks, who would pay the Padres in trade for an end run around the free-agent draft. Otherwise, N.Y. might be shut out because it picks last of the 26 major league clubs and would be frozen out if the maximum 13 teams tabbed the big outfielder before its first-round turn . . . And the Red Sox are within four of five days of choosing a Zimmer successor; three unnamed finalists. . .

Andrea Jaeger visits Georgetown today to promote the Jan. 7-12 Colgate women's tennis renewal at Cap Centre. She no doubt will be asked about the latest on the Women's Tennis Association rift with the U.S. Open: word that she, Martina Navratilova, Billie Jean King, Pam Shriver and beaucoup other top-liners have signed for a proposed 1981 WTA Open in an indoor arena under construction in burgeoning East Rutherford, N.J. -- the week before, and for them supplanting, the women's division of the established Open in New York. . .

Washington Figure Skating Club stars will perform at the opening of the new Hog Neck Ice Arena, on Rte. 50 three miles north of Easton, Md., on the Eastern Shore, 1:30 p.m. Sunday. . .

Former Redskin Gerard Williams is back in the league, as a Cardinal replacing injured defensive back Ken Greene. Picked off waivers by St. Louis as San Francisco tried to reactivate him in reconstructing shellshocked 49er secondary (12 TD passes yielded last three games). Danny Buggs has hooked on with Canada's Edmonton Eskimos and Mike Matocha, Redskin-drafted defensive end who made a nice preseason feature story but didn't make the team, starts afresh with Saskatchewan. . .One thing the Redskins need not fear now is a 1-15 finish, but N.Y. Giant Coach Ray Perkins doesn't discount that possibility for his outfit. Neither does NBC, which for first time in six years is passing up New York area showing of the Jints, Sunday when they entertain Denver, because "we think an enormous number of our viewers would prefer" Pittsburgh-Cleveland. Perkins sighs, "I know that by next year we will stop losing. Besides the draft, we will improve ourselves 25 percent through two or three key trades, which I'm going to push hard for."